


SNK High School

by Winterose



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Boarding School AU, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Other, Semi-Modern Setting, Shingeki no High School
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2018-09-03 00:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 12,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8690335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterose/pseuds/Winterose
Summary: SNK High School is a boarding school for children over 15 years - and it's open for everyone, no matter of money or social status. Coming from different families and situations, every individual has their own challenges in the school - making friends, for example. How do this year's juniors survive in their new school, new home?~*~Following multiple characters, not one absolute "main character".~*~Pairings will come and go, everyone may do their own conclusions and so on - we'll see where this fic goes with several things.





	1. Off to the dorm

**Author's Note:**

> First of all: this fic got its inspiration from one exact situation, that will later on show up as a scene in this fic. I have no idea where this is going right now, but I have several ideas what it might turn out to.
> 
> Second: I have no idea how people write these characters' names, because there are so many alternates. I chose the ones that I personally like the most, so they might be different than those you see the most.

* * *

 

“Eren! Are you ready?”

“Yes, mom!” Eren answered while closing his great sports bag’s zipper. 

“Hurry up then! You’ll be late soon!”

Eren grabbed his bag and ran downstairs. Her mother Carla and step-sister Mikasa were waiting in the hall. Mikasa stared at Eren over a red scarf she had around her neck.

“Will Armin come with you?” their mother asked.

“We’ll meet Armin at the train station”, Eren said. “Isn’t dad at home?”

“No, he had some important meeting he had to go to”, Carla answered, smiling a bit apologetic smile at Eren. “He’ll probably call you later.”

“Whatever”, Eren turn away. “Weren’t we in a hurry anyway?”

“Yes”, Carla gave Eren his jacket. “Let’s get going.”

Eren took his jacket and bag, and followed his mother out of the house. Their father had gone to work with the car, so the three of them had to walk all the way to the train station. The walk wasn’t too long, though, for the city was relatively small.

“There’s Armin!” Eren shouted as he saw their friend standing a bit further. “Armin! Armin, we’re here!”

“Eren”, Carla tried to hold her son back to say him goodbye, but Eren was quickly gone and didn’t hear Carla’s voice anymore. She sighed and turned towards Mikasa instead. “Take good care of each other.”

“We will”, Mikasa promised and hugged Carla. “I’ll look after Eren.”

“Try to keep him out of problems”, Carla smiled. “If that’s possible.”

Mikasa nodded and walked to the boys, who were looking at a brochure of the school they were heading to.

“Look at that! We’ll be living in a dormitory like that”, Armin pointed at one of the pictures. “There’s one for girls and one for boys there.”

“That looks cool”, Eren nodded. “Look at that! There’s a stable at the school! How expensive this school is?”

“I don’t think it costs much”, Armin had a quick look at the others. “The brochure said on the first page that this school is sponsored by some rich people, who wanted to give a chance for everyone to go to a better school than the free schools in the cities.”

“So it’s a school for poor?” Eren made a face.

“No, it’s not”, Armin shook his head. “It’s for everyone, rich or poor, from city or from countryside. It’s made for all kinds of people to meet each other and have a possibility to learn about differences between living areas.”

“Whatever”, Eren turn around. “Hey, the train is here! Let’s go!”

As Eren, Mikasa and Armin got onto the train, Carla waved at them and shouted the last goodbye over the noise of the train moving.

“Bye, mom!” Eren shouted at her as the train left the station behind and disappeared into a tunnel. He closed the window and grinned at Mikasa and Armin.

“Here we go! To the SNK High School!”

~*~

“Welcome to start a new year in the SNK High School! I am the headmaster of this school, Pixis, and these people behind me are teachers of different subjects”, a bald man said, standing on a stage build outside of the school. “New students are given keys to their dormitory rooms and school uniforms are waiting for you on your beds. Now, young ones, please remember to follow the few rules of this school and behave yourselves.”

Eren yawned.

“He could already stop talking and give us the keys”, he murmured. Armin peeked at Eren nervously.

“Eren, don’t start like that, you’ll get into problems right away”, Mikasa whispered. Eren rolled his eyes around.

“Yeah, yeah”, he said, letting his eyes wander around the people in front of the stage. It was easy to tell who were older students; they had their uniforms on. White pants, a short, brown jacket and over-knee-high boots of brown leather on top of a shirt of their own choice was the dressing code of SNK High School.

“Isn’t high school usually for people older than sixteen?” somebody whispered to their friend behind Eren.

“Yes, but this place wanted to try including the 15-year-old as well”, the friend answered.

“Now that I have come to the end of my monologue, please go to your rooms and have a pleasant first day of the semester. New students, stay here and wait for the old kids to get out of the way”, headmaster Pixis ended his speak. Another man, a tall and strict blonde stood up and took the lead.

“Good afternoon, I am vice headmaster Erwin Smith and the teacher of history and social studies”, he introduced himself. “I have your keys here in a box, and you’ll have them when you tell me your name. I’ll mark you in a list and tell you the number of your room.”

“Yeah!” Eren grinned and took Armin by the hand. “Let’s go get our keys!”

All the new students walked to the front as a big mass, giving their names to Erwin one by one and heading to the dormitory right after to see what kind of rooms they had.

“Eren Jaeger”, Eren said when he reached the front. Erwin marked him on the list and gave a bunch of keys to him.

“One key is for your dormitory room, another for a locker in the main building, one takes you through doors to several places like gyms in both main building and dormitory”, Erwin quickly explained. “There is a school uniform and a booklet for you on your bed. Everything you need to know is in the booklet.”

“Thanks”, Eren took the keys, waited for Armin to get his and ran to the dormitory with him.

“See you at dinner!” he shouted at Mikasa, not waiting for her. Mikasa looked after the boys, but let them go ahead.  _ We are not in the same dormitory anyway, _ she thought as she stepped forward to get her keys.

Eren opened the dormitory room with great power. There was already a boy in the room, putting his belongings into a chest of drawers next to his bed. There were total of four beds, each of them having a chest of drawers next to them. In front of the only window in the room was also a table with four chairs around it, kind of dividing the room into two.

The boy looked at Eren and Armin as they entered the room.

“These are rooms for four”, Armin quietly said as he walked in and looked around. Eren stared at the boy next to his open drawer.

“Who the fuck are you?” Eren asked. Armin sighed.  _ Here we go already. _

“I seem to be your roommate, asshole”, the boy knit his brows, annoyed of Eren’s rude appearance. “My name’s Jean. You better learn to use that.”

“I’m Eren”, Eren said and threw his bag on the bed on the other side of the room.

“I’m sorry for him”, Armin tried smiling at Jean. “I’m Armin. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you too”, Jean nodded at Armin and continued unpacking his bag. Armin took the bed next to Eren’s.

“Wonder who’s going to be the fourth in our room”, Armin said, trying to break the silence in the room. Eren looked at the only empty bed next to Jean’s.

“I hope it’s someone cool”, Eren grinned. They heard Jean make a  _ tsk _ -noise and Eren turn his head towards Jean. “Is there a problem? Huh?”

“Just your attitude”, Jean answered without looking at Eren. “You are annoying.”

“What the fuck have I done to you?” Eren shouted. Armin stared at the other boys.  _ What a start, _ he thought, not knowing what he should say.

“Who starts the year by asking his roommate ‘who the fuck are you’, really?” Jean turn around, clearly annoyed by Eren. The two of them were glaring each other, a painful silence was falling in the room, when someone opened the door and a boy with freckles walked in, smiling.

“Hey”, he greeted them. “You were quite noisy. What’s up? I guess we’re roommates from now on. My name’s Marco. Marco Bodt.”

“Hi, Marco”, Armin hurried to answer him. “I’m Armin. Are you the fourth in this room?”

“It seems so”, Marco smiled. “And who are you two?”

“I’m Eren”, Eren answered, looking up and down on Marco.  _ He seems nice in a way. At least he’s kinder than Jean. And he doesn’t look like a horse, _ he thought.

“My name is Jean”, Jean introduced himself, giving a short smile at Marco. “I guess you’ll have the bed next to mine, Marco.”

“Yeah, I see”, Marco nodded and walked next to his bed. “Have you yet taken a look at the booklet?”

“I have”, Armin said. “It’s pretty useful. It has everything in it; a map of the school area, times for breakfast and dinner, the open hours of the shop and about lessons, teachers’ names etc.”

“Is there a shop in this area?” Eren stared at Armin, who laughed a bit. Jean rolled his eyes around.

“Have you even taken a look at the brochure of this school? It said there that this school has a shop nearby”, Jean said with a mocking tone in his voice. Eren and Jean started shouting and mocking each other, and Armin met Marco’s eyes.

“I guess they don’t come along too well”, Marco made a face.

“I guess so too”, Armin sighed. “I hope they’ll learn to come along - or we’re going to have hard time in this school.”

Marco laughed quietly, and after that he and Armin tried to calm the fighters down a bit, to get a peace to the room again.


	2. SNK High School

“This uniform is awesome!” Eren was turning around in his brand new school uniform. The brown jacket had sewn badges with two crossed swords in both sleeves, on left pocket and in the back. Armin was straightening his own jacket’s collar and Jean was pulling his boots on. 

“Who had the idea of inventing this high boots?” he murmured. “What are these even good for?”

“I think they are for useful”, Marco said while packing his school bag. “There are so many activities in this school, after all. If it rains, your feet stay dry and you can go horse riding with these.”

“Does it really matter with the boots if you go riding?” Jean finally got the other shoe on his leg. Marco laughed a little, but didn’t answer Jean.

“Are we ready for breakfast?” Marco answered instead. Eren jumped around.

“I’m ready, at least”, he said with a confident voice. “Shall we go, then?”

Armin took his bag and stood up. “I’m ready, too. Jean?”

“Yeah”, Jean stood up and grabbed his bag. “I’m ready as well.”

The four of them left the room together, though Eren marched in the front and Jean walked behind him with Marco. Armin tried to keep up with Eren, and glanced back once in a while, smiling at Jean and Marco.

“What he thinks he is?” Jean muttered. “Walks like he owns the world. I wonder if he even knows where the cafeteria building is.”

“I think he’s nice”, Marco said. “Confident and noisy, but that isn’t too bad, if you ask me.”

“Whatever”, Jean sighed. “I don’t like him.”

The cafeteria smelled like porridge and fresh bread. The cafeteria had a kitchen on one side, a huge table full of bread, porridge and eggs, milk, tea and orange juice and other things on it, with trays and plates and glasses at one end of the table. The rest of the cafeteria was full of long tables filled with people.

“Mikasa is there!” Eren pointed at a table where several new students were sitting together. “Let’s get some food and go sit with them!”

Eren hurried up and Armin, Jean and Marco followed after him. There was a good talk on, when the boys arrived. Mikasa said good morning to them, and got a proper answer only from Armin.

“Did you already get your timetables?” Mikasa asked.

“No”, Eren shook his head. “Where can I get it?”

“There’s an office in the hall of the main building”, a girl on the other side of the table said. “Everyone has their timetables there. Just go to the office and tell them your name.”

“Okay, cool”, Eren smiled and continued eating.

“Wanna have a look around after the classes are over, Christa?” asked a dark-haired girl from another one, a small blonde, who sat next to her. They were quite a sight, for one of them was dark and tall and the other was light and short.

“Sure, Ymir”, the smaller girl answered and smiled at the one she had just called Ymir. “I want to see the library and the animals’ quarters.”

“Do you know where the library is?” Armin asked, looking at the girls.

“Not exactly”, Christa shook her head, “but there’s a map in the students’ booklet.”

“I want to see the library too”, Armin said, smiling a bit nervously. “Maybe we could go together? Eren, would you like to come as well?”

The taller girl, Ymir, put a hand around Christa’s shoulders.

“You wanna go together or just with me?” she asked. Christa looked up at Ymir.

“We could go all together, too”, Christa answered. “Why? Does it bother you?”

Ymir stared at Christa.

“No”, she said and took her hand off. “Let’s go all together, if you wish so.”

Christa smiled. Eren chewed his bread and couldn’t take his eyes off.  _ She is so cute, _ he thought.  _ I have never seen a girl like that. She’s like an angel. _

Mikasa noticed Eren staring at Christa and kicked him lightly under the table. Eren almost jumped in the air and turn his head at Mikasa.

“Whye aa u khihhimmee?” he tried to ask her, but he still had a mouth full of bread, so his words turned into a weird mumbling instead. A few people in the table started laughing, and Jean mocked him: “Hey, dumbass. Have you grow up in a pighouse? Because even a kid knows how to behave in the table!”

Eren took a bread from Armin’s tray and threw it at Jean’s face. A brown-haired girl next to Mikasa gasped.

“Shut up, horseface”, he said angrily. Jean stood up.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked. Eren stood up as well.

“What the fuck is wrong with  _ you? _ ” he answered with a question. 

“Stop it, Eren”, Mikasa whispered, but Eren didn’t listen. He took another piece of bread and threw it towards Jean, who this time dodged it and let the bread fly to the floor behind him.

“Missed”, he grinned. Eren looked like he was about to climb over the table, when a teacher came at their table and said “Cut it off!” with a voice that made the young ones go quiet. She stared at the fighters with quite a bored face.

“Sit down or get out of here”, she commanded. “There should be no fighting in this school. Least in the cafeteria. Go to the fencing club or self-defence club if you wish to fight.”

Eren and Jean eyed each other, but sat down in silence anyway. The teacher nodded and left. Mikasa stood up when she was gone.

“I’ll go find the classroom already”, she said, took her tray and walked away. As Mikasa passed him, Jean’s eyes caught her face and he forgot how to put a spoon in his mouth. Jean stared at Mikasa as she walked out of the cafeteria, black hair flowing behind her in the movement.  _ Wow. She’s beautiful. I’ve never seen that black hair, or a face like that. Is she Asian? There are no Asians where I come from, I’ve only seen pictures of them. She is just as beautiful as those Geishas. _

Eren turned up his nose as he saw Jean staring at Mikasa, but said nothing.

“Should we go?” Armin finally cut the silence. “Eren, we still need to get our timetables from the office before the classes begin.”

“Yeah, let’s go”, Eren nodded, took his tray and walked off so fast that Armin had to take a few running steps to catch him up.

~*~

“Good morning! I’m your English teacher, Petra Rall”, a short-haired woman standing in the front of the classroom introduced herself. “Welcome to SNK High School! It’s always good to see new faces at the start of the year.”

Petra smiled at the class with a nice, relaxed smile.

“For the beginning, about your timetables”, Petra started. “In your timetables, there are several classes you must attend. Top to that, there are blank spaces that you should fill with studies of your choices. We have four periods in this school, so no worries, if you can’t get everything fit in your timetables immediately!”

“That sounds cool”, someone said, a boy with hair cut short behind Eren.  _ As if he didn’t have hair left at all, _ Eren thought when he saw him.

“You have this first week to fill your timetables for the first period”, Petra informed, “and now, do you have any questions? Anything you want to know, before we start with your studies.”

“I have one”, Eren raised his hand up. “What does SNK in the school’s name mean?”

Jean hid his face in his palm.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me”, he said with a loud voice. “Are you really that stupid? You really never looked at the brochure, did you? Did you even look at the booklet you were handed?”

“With that kind of attitude, you’re not any better”, Petra interrupted Jean’s mockery. She didn’t look happy. “Not everyone is a genius, but with kindness you can patch that. If you can’t help a classmate, then better shut up.”

Petra looked around in class.

“Anyone who cares to help Eren?” she asked, giving out a smile. “Armin, would you?”

Armin startled, but nodded.

“Y- yes, miss”, Armin breathed in. “SNK comes from words  _ Social and Neverending Knowledge _ .”

“That’s right”, Petra wrote the words on the whiteboard behind her. “Some students say  _ Never-say-die _ as the second word in the name, but that’s not the official version.”

Petra turn around to look at the class again.

“Now, I think we could start your first English class properly”, she said, taking a bunch of notebooks from her desk. “Connie and Christa, would you please deal one notebook for each person in the classroom?”

Said students stood up, took half of the notebooks each and dealt them to their classmates.  _ So the almost-bald-guy is called Connie, huh?  _ Eren noted when the boy gave him a notebook. Eren wrote his name on its front cover and let his eyes wander around in the classroom.  _ I’ve got to become better than them. I wanna be the best one in this class! _


	3. Opinions

The math class was noisy. No one had seen their math teacher yet, and everyone was quite restless when left to a classroom all by themselves. It had been a couple of days since the school year had started, so nearly everyone knew already each other’s names at least. 

“Where the fuck is that teacher?” Eren muttered and lay his head on the desk.

“Late, it seems”, Connie answered from the desk behind Eren.

“I see that, I’m not an idiot”, Eren blurted.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that”, Connie said.

“Don’t bother, he’s quick to judge your words”, Jean commented.

“You’re the best to speak”, Ymir muttered at the same time as Eren jumped up of his chair.

“Do you have a problem again, horseface?” he shouted and turn towards Jean. Jean got up on his feet as well.

“With you, I do”, he answered. At that point the teacher walked in and glanced at boys with a very, very disapproving look in his eyes.

“Sit down”, he said shortly. Eren and Jean turn their heads to the front of the class and looked at the teacher. He was a short man with fancy-looking shirt under his jacket, and his eyes were hard and cold as ice.

“Sorry, sir”, Jean murmured and sat down.

“Sorry, teach”, Eren said as well, when he returned to his seat. Teacher looked at them as if the boys were something really ugly.

“You clearly need to be taught some behaviour as well”, the teacher said. He wrote his name on the whiteboard:  _ Levi _ .

“You better learn my name and fast”, Levi said, hitting the board with a wooden stick he had on the desk. “You know who you come begging for when you can’t learn shit and need some extra lessons.”

The whole class was quiet. Levi sat on the edge of his desk and glanced around the class.

“I hate this job just as much as you hate the subject”, Levi said. “Make it easier for yourself and don’t make me hate you as well.”

Nobody dared to say a thing. 

“Now, Jaeger and Kirschstein will give each of you a notebook and a math book”, Levi patted a pile of books on his desk. Took a second of the mentioned two to understand they were expected to do something. Jean and Eren both jumped up, said “yes” and hurried to deal a book and notebook for everyone. Levi made a “hmph”-sound as he looked at the boys doing their job clumsily.

“Sit down when you are done”, Levi finally said and took a calculator from his desk. “Each of you will get one of these as well. They are expensive, so you better take good care of them or you’ll be in trouble faster than you can spell ‘f u c k’.”

Eren swallowed nervously as Levi told the class to go and write their names on a list when they were handed a calculator.  _ It looks expensive indeed. I thought calculator were simpler, is that even a calculator? Looks more like some sort of tiny computer to me. _

“Is there a problem, Jaeger? Did you miss the instructions or are they too hard for you to understand?” Levi stepped in front of Eren’s desk. The boy startled, jumped up and muttered: “N- no, Levi, sir.”

“I am no sir”, Levi sounded annoyed. “Next time you call me ‘sir’ you’ll tidy up the storage room.”

Eren hurried to teacher’s desk to write his name on the list and get his own calculator. Each calculator had a number in their back, to make it easy to know if students lost their calculators.

_ This year’s students will drive me mad, _ Levi thought, looking at them as the young failed to keep up a line, pushing each other and peeking at Levi horrified.  _ I’m not that scary, stupid kids. Get your shit together. _

~*~

“I’ll take information technology on Wednesday mornings”, Eren said and marked the subject on the paper they were supposed to fill in order to attend optional classes. “How about you, Armin?”

“Eh, I think I’ll take that extra biology course there”, Armin answered. “It’s about animals, plants and nature, so it sounds interesting.”

“Whatever”, Eren yawned and lay down on his bed. “Sounds like more studying to me.”

“Have you guys looked at the clubs yet?” Marco asked. He sat next to Armin at their table, Eren lay on his bed and Jean sat on the table.

“Not yet”, Eren answered. “Is there anything interesting there?”

“Yes, quite”, Marco nodded. “There are normal clubs like ball-games club, art club and music club, and more interesting ones like fencing, horse riding and self-defence.”

“What? Really?” Eren jumped up. “Self-defence club sounds so cool! What else?”

Eren grabbed his booklet and searched the page that had the clubs’ list. He read it with great curiosity, excitement glowing in his eyes. Marco laughed a bit, and Jean sighed.

“You still need one more optional course in this period, right?” he stared at his own paper. “Don’t start with the clubs before you’re done with your studies, idiot.”

“Oh, give me a break”, Eren threw his math notebook at Jean, but hit Armin instead. “Oops, sorry, Armin.”

“Could you calm down, Eren?” Armin begged. “He’s right, you should pick one more optional course for yourself.”

Eren sighed and lay down on his bed.

“Yeah, sure, I do”, he murmured and raised the booklet up to be able to read it even though he lay on his back. “All the courses just sound so boring.”

“There’s myths course on Friday afternoon”, Marco pointed at the paper. “How about that one?”

“Meh”, Eren made a face.

“What  _ do  _  you find interesting anyway?” Jean knocked his hand on the table.

“I guess I’ll take that myths course”, Eren said, marking it on his paper. “And  _ now _ I can finally look at the clubs properly.”

~*~

“Yo, Christa”, Ymir tilted her head to see Christa, who sat at the table, filling her paper. “What classes do you take on Wednesday and Friday?”

“I thought I could take that art course and myths class”, Christa answered, peeking over her shoulder. “How about you?”

“The same”, Ymir marked the said courses in her paper. 

“Are you taking all the same classes as I do?” Christa asked.

“Might be”, Ymir looked at the list of clubs in her booklet.

“You know I can attend classes on my own as well, don’t you?” Christa stood up and walked to Ymir. She blocked the light so Ymir had to look up at Christa instead of her booklet.

“I know”, Ymir answered. “I said I might take all the same classes, but didn’t call out the reason, right?”

“If you say that the reason is not me, you’re lying”, Christa noted. Ymir grinned.

“Quick to judge, angel”, she said, turning her eyes back to the booklet even though she couldn’t see it properly.  _ She didn’t deny it, nor did she admit it, _ Christa thought. At the time the door opened and Mikasa walked in.

“Hey, Mikasa”, Ymir looked at the girl, “when were these papers due? Tomorrow?”

“On Friday”, Mikasa looked at a calendar that hung on their room’s wall. “Tomorrow, yes.”

“Where is Sasha?” Christa asked, looking around in the room.

“Probably still in the cafeteria”, Ymir grinned. “She sure loves eating. I wonder if she joins the bakery club.”

“At least she does what she likes to”, Christa shrugged and sat down to finish filling her paper. Ymir said with a voice so quiet Mikasa couldn’t hear it: “You’re the best to talk.”

Christa froze for a second, peeked at Ymir and raised a brow.

“I  _ do _ do what I like”, she whispered. “I’m not the one following the others.”

“No”, Ymir stretched her neck, “but you do things more for other people than for yourself.”

Christa noticed Mikasa looking at them, and said nothing more. A silence fell upon them, until Sasha walked back to the room with a piece of bread still in her mouth. She sat down in front of Christa and asked help for filling her paper. Both Christa and Mikasa helped her, while Ymir lay on her bed looking at the clubs’ list and wondering which club would be most interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clubs available in SNK High School  
> \- Art club  
> \- Ball games club (football, floorball etc)  
> \- Chess club  
> \- Chorus  
> \- Fencing / swordplay club  
> \- Horse riding club  
> \- Literature club  
> \- Movies & Films’ club  
> \- Music club  
> \- Self-defense club  
> \- Swimming club  
> \- Theater club (acting, costumes, lights etc)
> 
> Each club may have any number of students from 5 to 30, unless the leading teacher names another maximum or minimum of students. The clubs start on the third week of the school year.
> 
> Additionally:  
> \- Bands can be formed by students  
> \- SNK Basketball Team (5-10 players only)  
> \- SNK Football Team (11-22 players only)


	4. Sweat and hard lessons

“Good day, class! While it’s raining outside, we should play inside today”, Hanji Zoe, the P.E. teacher, grinned like maniac while warming up with the students in the gymnasium. No one knew if Hanji was male or female, since every teacher and older student seemed to have a different point of view in that one. Someone dared to ask Hanji which one they wanted to be preferred as, and Hanji’s answer was pretty much:  _ “Call whatever you want, we’ll see if I answer.” _

“Today I will teach you a new game”, Hanji had a loud voice that could be heard even after teacher disappeared into a storage room. “It’s called  _ break the chain _ . You’ll be divided into two teams. One team gets red vests, the other gets yellow. Since you are not even, I’ll come to the red team”, Hanji threw some vests randomly to the students. “The game is easy. The team that has the ball should try and pass it from member to another by throwing it. The team that does not have the ball tries to get the ball away from the other team. If the ball drops or is caught by an enemy, the turn changes.”

_ An enemy? _ Christa thought a bit amused.  _ Just how serious Hanji is with this game? _

“How do you win in this game?” Eren asked, pulling a yellow vest on.

“If a team succeeds to get ten passes in a row, they win”, Hanji put a red vest on. “You ready? Here comes the ball! The one who catches it, starts the game”, and so Hanji threw a soft, green ball up and laughed as some students ran into each other trying to catch it. Mikasa was the one getting the ball in the beginning, and so the yellow team started the game.

“Eren!” Mikasa threw the ball at Eren, who wasn’t too far away. As Eren was about to catch the ball, a blonde girl pushed him so hard that Eren fell on the floor. The girl caught the ball and stared down at Eren.

“What the-?” Eren looked up at her.

“You have a bad balance”, she stated, “you are easy to knock up.”

After that she threw the ball at another student Eren knew to be called Reiner. Mikasa gave a hand at Eren.

“Did it hurt?” she asked. Eren didn’t take her hand, but stood up himself.

“Who the fuck she thinks she is?” Eren muttered and ran back to the game. For a second Mikasa looked a bit hurt after him, until she followed Eren and caught the ball mid-air. The game went on, neither team getting more than four to six passes.

“Sasha!” Christa threw the ball at Sasha, who first looked happy to get the ball, but soon enough made a squeaking noise and jumped back, since Hanji let out a loud “aaaaarrr!” -shout and jumped high to hit the ball from its course. Hanji laughed at Sasha.

“Red team rules”, Hanji grinned. Ymir glanced at Hanji disapprovingly as Reiner took the ball and was about to continue the game.  _ You’re not the only ones who can be rough, _ she thought. Reiner threw the ball towards Berthold, but before he could catch it Ymir jumped up, hit his hand away and caught the ball herself. She peeked over her shoulder at Berthold’s confused face and threw the ball at Christa.

The game never ended to a team’s winning, since they ran out of time. Hanji made the students run around the gymnasium a couple of times before letting them to shower.

“That was a good game!” Hanji encouraged them. “Maybe we’ll next week play murderball or capture the flag!”

“Our teacher surely likes to play aggressive games, huh?” Connie sighed as he was about to enter the boys’ locker room.

“I heard that!” Hanji’s voice echoed in the gym hall and Connie made a face. Everyone was laughing as they went to change their clothes.

“That sure was a hard game”, Sasha sat down on a bench. “I’m hungry. How long it’s until dinner?”

“We have one class before that”, Mikasa answered, looking at a clock on the wall.

“Eh? Really? I’ll die before that”, Sasha complained.

“Shut up, you weren’t even playing your hardest”, Ymir snapped.

“Yeah, Annie and Mikasa did quite a job playing back there”, one of the quieter girls, Hannah, said.

“Where is Annie by the way?” Christa rolled a towel around her as she looked around.

“I guess she went to the unisex changing room by herself”, Sasha said, her eyes turned up to the roof.

“Is there an unisex changing room here?” Ymir asked.

“Yeah”, Sasha nodded, turning her eyes at Ymir. “It’s the middle door of the changing room doors. Didn’t you know?”

“I have no need to know”, Ymir shrugged and marched to the showers with her towel. Sasha closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she noticed she was the only one not undressed yet.

“Asch”, Sasha bit her lower lip and quickly took off her clothes to make it in time to their last lesson that day.

~*~

“New year, new faces, huh?” the leading teacher of the self defence club was an old, strict man who didn’t seem to have any sense of humour. “You kids better know one thing when you start with my club: even though clubs are for fun and free time, in this club you kids listen to me and follow my orders  _ exactly _ . If any single one of you breaks the code, I’ll throw them out of the club without a warning. Got it?”

_ Why did I come to this club? _ Eren regretted joining the club before they’d got to do anything. He resisted the urge to make a face, and kept his face neutral instead. The leading teacher raged about the rules of the club in the front.

Eren let his eyes wander around. There were some older students in the club, the only younger ones were Mikasa, Jean, Berthold, Reiner and the blonde girl, whose name Eren had learned to be Annie. 

“I will make you pairs for today’s training”, the leader shouted. “Keep your hands open and try to slap your opponent’s head or shoulders. Point to the one hitting, at five points the loser makes five push-ups.”

To his surprise, Eren got Annie as his opponent. Annie took the fighting position naturally, as if she had always known how to do it. Eren had to look at how the teacher did it, to be able to copy it.

_ How is she so natural with this? _ Eren thought, looking at Annie.  _ She has a strange look in her eyes. I’m not sure if she’s fierce or bored. Maybe both? _

“Start!”

Eren took a great step ahead, and felt a hit in his right temple.  _ Damn. _ The next one hit his left shoulder.  _ She’s fast. _ Eren turn around to face Annie again, and to his surprise got a slap on his forehead.

“Damn you!” Eren screamed, annoyed of his failure three times in a row. Eren tried to hit Annie, but she dodged and at the same time both hit Eren to his shoulder and kicked his feet off under him. Eren fell on the ground and for a moment he saw only darkness. When he opened his eyes again, Annie stood upon him, looking down as if he was something disgusting.

“You wanna try again?” she asked. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eren got up from the ground. “You’d just beat me up again. How do you do that?”

“You have a bad balance”, Annie said, turning her back at Eren. “You stand too straight. You lean too much back.”

Annie walked off. Eren met Mikasa’s eyes as Mikasa was waiting for Jean to finish his push-ups, to continue training.

~*~

“Hey, Mikasa”, Jean caught the girl up when the club had ended. She was still alone, since Eren had gone to talk with Annie, Reiner and Berthold.  _ It’s my chance. _

“You look really beautiful when you fight”, Jean started. “I mean, your hair. It’s so long and it looks good on you. I like girls with long hair.”

“Mikasa, shall we go?” Eren had appeared next to them. Mikasa nodded and left Jean stand there alone. As the two of them walked off, Jean heard Eren say to Mikasa: “You’d look more adult-like if you cut your hair. Quite many older girls do, why wouldn’t you? It’d look good on you.”

Jean couldn’t hear any more of the conversation, but he was wordless.  _ I hope she really doesn’t listen to him in that one, _ he thought, sighed and took his stuff to go to the dormitory.  _ I need a shower. A long, hot shower. _


	5. Cheering up

To Jean’s upset, a couple of days later Mikasa had had her hair cut way shorter. Everyone else seemed to compliment her of looking good with short hair - everyone else except Jean. 

_ Not everyone else, _ Jean thought as his eyes wandered around the class.  _ Only Berthold, Annie and Ymir haven’t said a word about it. Not surprised, though, those aren’t the most social people in this class. _

Jean stayed in the classroom after all the rest had gone. Even the teacher left the room before Jean, leaving the door open and asking for Jean to close it when he was about to leave. Jean lay his head on his desk and sighed.

“Jean, you all right?” 

Jean raised his eyes to meet Marco’s. He looked down at Jean with slight curiosity in his eyes, some school books in his hands and a bag hanging on his shoulder.

“I thought everyone left”, Jean said, feeling a bit confused. Marco sat down on a chair so that he was on the same level as Jean.

“I almost did, but I didn’t see you coming out, so I came back to check what’s up”, Marco smiled. Jean answered to his smile shortly.

“You wanted to go eat dinner with me?” Jean asked.

“Mmh, yeah”, Marco nodded. “I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”

Marco put the books from his hands on the table. Jean looked at them.

“We didn’t even have history today, did we?” he asked.

“No, I took it along by accident”, Marco explained. “It was in the same pile as my physics book.”

“Oh”, Jean didn’t say much more. There wasn’t much more to say about it. They sat in silence for a while, Marco moving his fingers on the front cover of the book, until Jean opened his mouth again.

“How can anyone be such a mistake to the world that they are rejected from the very beginning?” Jean wondered aloud. Marco peeked at him.

“You’re not a mistake to the world”, he said. Jean startled.

“Did I mention myself?” 

“Nope.”

“Then how did you come up with me talking about myself?”

Marco looked at Jean and smiled.  _ Gosh, does he always smile like that?  _ Jean thought, feeling confused. Marco smiled in a way that made Jean want to trust in everything he said, no matter how much he felt like he wasn’t worth Marco’s kind words.

“It’s not hard to see”, Marco answered. “You look at Mikasa in the way anyone looks at their crush. But she seems so far away compared to the other girls. She talks rarely and mostly hangs around with Eren and Armin.”

“What does she even see in Eren?” Jean felt angry about thinking of him. “He’s even worse a loser than I am!”

“First of all, you are not a loser, you are strong in every way”, Marco stated, “second, I think they are sort of siblings. Eren and Mikasa.”

“What? No, they can’t be”, Jean shook his head. “They don’t share the name. They don’t look the same. They are not even the same race!”

“No, no, they’re not related”, Marco laughed a little. “I said sort of siblings. I heard them tell Connie and Sasha that Eren’s parents adopted Mikasa when she was nine or something. They were neighbours until that, I think.”

“What? Really?” Jean stared at Marco. 

“That’s what they said, at least”, Marco shrugged.

“What happened to her parents?” Jean asked.

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to ask. It would be rude.”

“Yeah, you’re right”, Jean sighed. “Wow, I really didn’t know. About anything of this. I thought they were just childhood friends or hoped for marriage or something.”

“Is there still a place where parents decide of their children’s marriage in their childhood?” Marco laughed curiously.

“I don’t know, might be”, Jean grinned. “You never know what happens in the world. There are so many differences between people and some old habits might still be alive somewhere.”

“You’re right on that one”, Marco nodded. “Like, there are still some families that go hunting for their lives.”

“Seriously?” Jean laughed. “Not where I come from, at least! We have markets with all kind of stuff that farmers and craftsmen do and bring for sale.”

Marco and Jean spent a good time talking about differences between cities, towns, districts and areas they knew, about their hometowns and how things were run there.

“Hey, wanna go eat something? I’m hungry at least!” Marco finally said, getting up on his feet. He looked at the clock and added: “We still have some twenty minutes until they close the line and clean the food away.”

“Yeah, same”, Jean agreed and stood up. The boys left the classroom, talking with each other about what there might be for dinner that day.


	6. Future plans

Christa lay on the grass on the edge of a football field. A nice wind blew through the school area, and the shouts of the players filled the air.

“Don’t you want to play, Christa?” Ymir’s voice broke the silence. Christa opened her eyes and looked up at Ymir. She was wet with sweat after running on the field and Christa smiled at her.

“No”, she answered, getting up to sitting position. “I’ll rather take a nap here and continue drawing later.”

“What are you drawing?” Ymir asked, looking at the drafting book Christa had on her lap.

“A landscape”, Christa answered, looking at her own draft.

“Where’s that from?” Ymir stared at the draft. It was an unfamiliar place to her, but she was sure it was an existing place somewhere.

“Somewhere far away”, Christa put her hand on the drawing, looking up at Ymir again. A shout from the field cut their conversation: “Ymir, we’ll continue the game! You up?”

“Yeah, sure”, Ymir answered and ran back to the field to play. Christa looked after her, following Ymir’s run for a while. Then she looked down at her draft again.

_ Somewhere far away, _ she thought as her eyes wandered around the lines on the paper, making a picture Christa knew so well but hadn’t seen in years.  _ And will never see again. I will probably die before seeing that landscape again. _

~*~

Sasha took a great portion of food on her plate and a bread piece with it. As she took her tray to the table, the others stared at her. Sasha didn’t notice their weird looks as she started eating her dinner.

“How can you eat so much, Sasha?” Connie asked. He had a smaller portion on his plate.

“I’m hungry”, Sasha answered, looking up of her plate.

“You look like you’ve never eaten food before”, Eren said, comparing their plates with his eyes. “That’s damn lot of food!”

“I can’t help it”, Sasha sighed. “I’m used to moving a lot. I need energy! A pity that they only give one piece of bread here...”

Armin stared at Sasha eating her food.

“Do you want my bread?” he offered. Sasha looked confused, but only for a short time.

“Yes, please!” Sasha grabbed the bread while she thanked Armin for the bread.

“Hey, guys”, Marco walked to the table and sat next to Armin. “What’s up? Have you seen the posters about the trip to the old military base?”

“I did”, Armin nodded. Eren nearly jumped up.

“Eh? A trip?” he shouted. “How do we take part? I wanna see the military base!”

“There’s a list below the poster”, Armin said. “Everyone who wants to join the trip should write their names on the list during next week.”

“That’s awesome!” Eren turn towards Mikasa. “Should we go, Mikasa? Are you coming?”

Mikasa chewed her mouthful of food and answered once she had swallowed it.

“Sure, I’ll go if you do.”

Jean looked at Mikasa and then at Marco.

“Are you going?” he asked.

“Why not”, Marco smiled. “It sounds interesting. I’ve never seen cannons before, and they say there are some in the military base!”

Jean nodded and thought of his possibilities.  _ I could go there with Marco and Mikasa and all the others. Or stay back at the school area and enjoy the silence. On the other hand, do I even want silence that much? It could be fun to go. I’ve never seen a military base before either. _

And in the end of the next week, most of their age group had written their names to the list. Even Jean.


	7. Start of the trip

The bus stood in front of the school, waiting for the students to walk in. Eren and Reiner were talking about the military base, while Armin, Mikasa and Berthold just stood next to them, listening to their talk. The morning was chilly, and all of them had green capes of the school put on their shoulders.

“Are there really cannons there, what do you think?” Eren asked, looking at the map they had been given.

“They are marked here”, Reiner pointed on the map in Eren’s hands. “There is one, and there.”

“Awesome!” Eren grinned widely. “I want to climb on top of one cannon!”

“I don’t think it’s wise”, Armin said. “They are old and most likely slippery. You’ll just hurt yourself if you fall.”

“But what if I don’t fall”, Eren sounded confident about it. Mikasa looked at Eren and wanted to tell him to quit fooling around, but as she turn towards Eren, the teachers came to the bus’ front door.

“Okay, kids, attention here, please!” Hanji shouted with a loud voice. Levi stood next to Hanji, glancing at the students.  _ Is he never amused? Levi looks like he could murder someone, _ Jean thought.

“We’ll now be off to the old military base”, Hanji started, waving a bunch of papers in one hand. “It’ll take all day long, so I hope you are prepared. We have some food for us, of course, and some snacks for the bus rides. As you step in the bus, you’ll be given a bag filled with your portion. Keep that safe or you’ll stay hungry the whole day!”

Sasha swallowed.  _ I hope they have something good in the bag, _ she thought.

“I have nothing else for you to say. I’ll be in the bus with you and Levi, who is in charge of your group”, Hanji ended the talk and waved to Levi. The short man glanced at Hanji and then said: “Get yourselves to the bus or you’ll be left behind.”

~*~

The bus ride took four hours and it was already 11 o’clock when the bus stopped at the military base’s front gate. The gate was rusted and stuck open, a narrow trail leading through the overgrown grass that filled the front yard.

“Here it is - the old military base!” Hanji shouted very loudly. “You are all free to explore it on your own. We’ll have lunch and dinner together, so be sure to bring your food bags along when we meet in the dining hall in couple of hours!”

The students ran out of the bus and straight to the military base. Their wonder and admiration made Hanji laugh.

“They are so sweet”, Hanji said and looked at Levi, who was sitting on the front bench of the bus, looking like he would rather be anywhere else than on that trip.  _ That’s what he always looks like, though, _ Hanji thought.  _ I wonder if he’s able to make any other faces than that. _

“Shouldn’t you go look after them?” Levi asked.

“It’s actually your job”, Hanji pointed out. “I’m here just for help.”

“Damn, why am I put in lead of these rides to the middle of fucking nowhere”, Levi sighed, got up and walked to the military base’s building with Hanji following right after him, looking around to see the young ones who were all around the base already.

~*~

“Hey, Christa! Come here!” Ymir took Christa by the hand and led her around the corner, where ladder were bolted to the wall.

“Let’s climb up here”, Ymir said, leading the way. “I’ll show you something.”

“Are we allowed to do this?” Christa asked as she followed Ymir to the ladders. Ymir shrugged.

“Well, no one said we couldn’t go here”, she said. Christa got up on top of the building and looked around. The whole roof was grown shut with moss and fern, and where Ymir was walking to was a round made by rocks of different sizes in a ring, as if there was an old camp fireplace under all the vegetation.

“What is this place?” Christa whispered, admiring the place she’d been brought to.  _ If Ymir would ever leave me alone for a moment, I could hide here and be forgotten behind. This would be a perfect place to disappear and lay on ground until I grow moss myself. _

“I thought we could sit here and kill some time”, Ymir sat on one of the rock in the circle. “I don’t think anyone else will find this place for a while. We’ll have all the peace for ourselves.”

Christa walked around the rocks and looked at every direction around her. She saw Annie wandering around by herself and Marco and Jean examining a cannon, while Eren, Armin and Mikasa were studying another. Eren was half inside the cannon, shouting something that echoed and changed into unclear mumbling.

_ Oh, how high this building is, _ Christa thought,  _ everyone looks so small from up here! Wonder if they’ll ever look up to see me standing here. What would they think, if they did? I bet Eren would want to climb up here, too. Jean would follow him, to prove he’s no lesser than Eren is. _

“Christa, the moss is so soft”, Ymir said, alluring Christa to sit on the moss with her.  _ What’s wrong with her? Is she planning to jump or what the fuck? _

Christa turn around and walked to Ymir.

“I’m sorry, Ymir, I got lost in my thoughts”, Christa smiled and sat down next to Ymir. “The sight is so beautiful up here.”

_ Why does it feel like you’re lying to me? _ Ymir thought, but said nothing. The sun was starting to shine and warmth spread around the outside of the military base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone who cares to read this fic! I'm sorry for being so inactive lately, I hope you didn't think I have forgotten all about this fic. I will continue publishing this fic now that the 2nd season of anime has started, if not regularly then irregularly, but publish anyway. Thank you everyone who is still interested in this fic!


	8. Shitty choice

“Hey, moron, get out of that cannon before your fat head gets stuck in it”, Jean shouted. Eren looked at him.

“How stupid can one be, thinking a human being can get stuck in a cannon?” Eren answered, jumping down.

“Wow, have you been reading a dictionary?” Jean snorted. “Those words are way too clever for your use.”

Marco tugged Jean’s sleeve lightly.

“Hey, Jean, what about we go check how the inside of the base looks like?” he suggested, smiling a bit nervously. Jean peeked at Marco and nodded.

“Yeah, right, whatever”, he murmured. “Mikasa, wanna join us?”

Jean looked at Mikasa, hoping for her to agree.

“I’ll rather stay with Eren”, Mikasa answered. Eren made a face at Jean.

“Run off, Jean”, Eren said. Jean pouted his nose, but said nothing more. He just turn away and walked away with Marco by his side. The two of them went inside of the military base building and looked at all the different sort of rooms around. In one room they found Connie and Sasha staring at the wall behind a shelf.

“What’s in there? A drawing in the wall?” Jean asked, grinning a bit. He felt still quite frustrated about Eren being such a cheeky kid and Mikasa turning him down and having Eren’s side instead.

“No”, Connie shook his head. “There’s a hallway. Hidden hallway.”

“What?” Jean and Marco ran to the two and looked through a hole in the wall. There really was a hallway, narrow and clearly long forgotten. Here and there they could see water on the floor, but the light was dim. Only one door-like hole somewhere in the middle of the hallway let some light in. 

“Do you think there is food in there?” Sasha licked her lips.

“No way they would store food in a place like that”, Connie snorted.

“I’m curious”, Marco said, looking at the hole that lead to the hallway. “This hole probably is big enough for a man to pass through.”

“Do you think we should go in?” Connie knit his eyebrows.

“Why not, they said we are allowed to go anywhere we can”, Jean shrugged. He was the first one to go through the hole and land on the wet floor of the hallway.

“I really didn’t mean to, but okay”, Marco sighed and climbed in after Jean. Connie, as nervous as he was, followed them up. Sasha decided to stay near the hole, so the boys went without her.

The hallway was too narrow for two people to walk side by side, so Jean took the lead. He followed the most dry path, where the concrete could be seen and only few drops of water glimmered in the rare rays of light. As they reached the halfway, the boys saw that the end of the tunnel and the great pile of huge rocks that cut the way through.

“Let’s see what’s here”, Jean nodded towards the doorway that let some light to the hallway. Connie wandered a bit further towards the rocks, but followed the others soon.

“What is this place?” Connie whispered as he entered the room. The roof had partly come down and a little bit of sunlight made its way inside, lighting up the whole room and a bit of the hallway. The room itself was abandoned, some plants and moss grew around on the broken tables, floor and shelves. One shelf had fallen down and a couple more still stood, one leaning to the other like it could fall apart any second if anyone even looked at it.

“This looks like some sort of a lab”, Marco said, looking at the stuff on the table. “See? There’s glass, a lot of it, and the table under the moss is all green and blue and pink.”

“Glass can be something else as well”, Jean murmured and wandered around, looking at the missing part of the roof. Marco started searching the shelf that was not falling down, meanwhile Connie saw something in the other shelf.

“Hey, what’s that?” he asked and reached for whatever he had seen. Unluckily he accidentally touched the shelf too hard, causing it to break down, bringing the other shelf down on Marco. Marco shouted as the shelf fell, and they heard glass breaking.

“Marco? Marco, are you alright?” Jean screamed and started throwing pieces of the broken shelf out of his way. Marco lay under wooden pieces, books and glass, the right side of his face steaming.

“Ouww, it hurts, it burns, help me, it hurts”, Marco was nearly panicking and pressed both his hands to his face. It took a second from both Connie and Jean to act. They froze, stared at Marco and finally Connie slapped Jean’s head.

“We need to carry him out!” he said and grabbed Marco by his armpits. “Help, Jean!”

Jean startled, helped Connie to pull Marco out of the garbage, then they grabbed him one around his chest, the other of his legs and hurriedly carried him to the hallway.

“Sasha!” Connie shouted. His voice echoed of the narrow walls. “Sasha, go get the teachers! Hurry up!”

Sasha, who didn’t know what had happened and had only heard something breaking and shouting, was scared like hell. She squeaked and started running, she ran and ran until she found Levi and Hanji and started screaming at them from far.

“Teacher Levi! Teacher Hanji! It’s emergency!” 

Her voice caught the two of them up and the panic in her voice made them move quick. Sasha led them to the room, where Jean and Connie were dragging Marco through the hole, both pale like ghosts and Marco still quietly whining, his face and palms still steaming, his breath slowly fading.


	9. Regret

“Marco will stay alive.”

Those words made Jean ease a bit, but he was disturbed by the fact that he wasn’t allowed to visit Marco at the hospital.

“Even though your regret works as the best punishment for you, I cannot give you permission to leave the school after the episode back at the military base”, Hanji answered to Jean’s question. Hanji saw how disappointed Jean was, how depressed of the unknown outcome of their stupid exploring in the abandoned hallway, but could not help. It was a strict decision made together with Hanji, Levi and the school headmaster Pixis. Since all three of them had had different sort of ideas for the punishment, Pixis had come up with a compromise and stated that Jean, Connie and Sasha were not allowed to spend their free time anywhere else than in their named clubs or their own rooms for the next couple of weeks.

_ I wish I could help you, kid, but I can’t override the decisions made by the headmaster, _ Hanji thought as Jean walked off, kicking the floor on his way.  _ We should’ve said it more clearly to not go into any places that look dangerous or abandoned. It was as much of our responsibility, even though Levi keeps on saying you were reckless and should be punished more strictly, with some physical work. Poor kids. _

~*~

Connie, after a few days of sitting in his room, sneaked out and picked a way barely no one knew, going to a place behind large bushes full of berries. It was right behind their dorms, and the bushes made it a perfect place to spend time without eyes of the curious staring. Only Connie and Sasha knew about it, or so Connie thought. When he arrived outside the dorm from a small door, Sasha sat there in the middle of the bushes, eating the berries.

“So, you didn’t care to follow the orders either?” Connie sat next to Sasha.

“Oh my gosh Connie, you scared me”, Sasha sighed. “These berries are good. Wanna taste some?”

Connie refused and looked at Sasha. She kept on eating the berries, her lips red with their juice.

_ She doesn’t seem bothered by our adventure, _ Connie thought.  _ She wasn’t responsible for it, though. I found the hole and I caused the shelf to fall apart. It was more my fault than Jean’s, who looks so depressed by this and keeps on blaming himself for Marco’s state. _

“I want to go hunting”, Sasha sighed and fell laying on her back on the grass. Through the bushes she stared up at the clear blue sky, where a couple of birds flew across her sight.

“You want what?” Connie shook his head.

“To go hunting. You know, shooting birds and hares with a bow”, Sasha explained. “We used to do that with my father back when I was a kid and lived at home.”

“Is hunting fun?” Connie asked.

“Yeah, it is”, Sasha smiled. “At least I like it. And the meat is delicious. You should try it, hunting a prey yourself and them preparing it by a campfire… oh, how I miss that!”

Connie and Sasha kept on talking about hunting and camping until the darkness fell and they had to sneak back to their dorm rooms without any adults seeing them, to not get into trouble for disobeying their orders.


	10. Group works

“Today we start a new kind of a project”, Petra said in her usual happy voice. She stood in front of the class with Erwin and Levi, who both stood expressionless by her side and looked more like safety guards than fellow teachers. “This project will be of your English, social studies and math and logic courses. It counts on all three subjects and will be a great part of the following month at school.”

Everyone listened carefully. For most of them, project working was a new thing, since in their previous schools the teachers were usually those cheap, poor ones who knew only the traditional way to teach - read the text and write down the answers.

“We will divide you into groups of five by drawing names from a hat”, Petra pointed at a hat laying on the teacher’s desk. “No group changes are allowed! And remember; how you treat your group members will affect your grades, so be kind and careful while working together.”

A few students eyed the classroom and some eyes met. Drawing the groups from a hat made quite many of them nervous - they would be parted of their friends, for sure, maybe even put together with someone they didn’t want to work with. But no complains were allowed - they all knew it.

“Now, here’s the first group we have”, Petra said as Levi took the hat in his hands. He kept the hat still while Petra reached for five name tickets and read them as she picked them up.

“Jean. Berthold. Ymir. Mikasa. Marco.”

The said students looked at each other and Berthold made a small sort-of-a-smile for his group. Jean took a deep breath.

_ Oh great. A group with one missing and three quiet people with me. Just great. At least Mikasa is in the same group.. and Marco, if he comes back to school… _

“The second group. Reiner. Christa. Eren. Sasha. Annie.”

Christa and Sasha’s eyes met and they smiled at each other. Annie seemed to ignore them totally and Reiner smiled a bit crooked as he looked at the group he’d been given.

“The third group. Connie. Armin. Mina. Thomas. Hannah.”

When all of the groups had been read out, Erwin ordered them to go in groups in order to see each other and introduce themselves, if someone was still unknown to their classmates.

“We will hand the instruction booklets now”, Erwin said, having a pile of them in his hands. “Do not lose them. You won’t get new ones and it will be a great minus in your grades.”

Eren paged through the booklet and grinned.

“Hell yeah, this is gonna be good!” he said, overly confident of himself and his group, even without reading the booklet actually. Petra smiled at his shout, but Levi eyed the boy angrily.  _ What the heck is he so noisy about? Doesn’t that brat know how to shut his mouth, for real... _

~*~

The first month seemed to be impossible for some groups to get through. On his every lesson Levi stared at the youngs who never really got anything done properly, despite the instructions being simple.

_ What the fuck is wrong with these kids. Can they even read? _ Levi thought many times, seeing someone do the exact opposite to the instructions. Levi sighed deep, hoping that he didn’t see the common mistakes be the easiest ones to avoid. But they were.

“Your homework today is to  _ learn to fucking read  _ and  _ understand _ that damn text you just read”, Levi finished one of his lessons. “It’s not some cryptic language you’ve never heard of, it’s your fucking mother language you morons. Learn it or stay out of this class.”

_ Wish it was that simple to just tell them to learn it, _ Levi sighed and stared at the ceiling.

“Umh.. sir? May I speak with you?”

Levi turned so that he saw who was talking. It was one of the better kids in the class, Christa. Her sidekick, the dark-haired tall girl, Ymir, stood in the doorway waiting for Christa.

“Sure, be quick”, Levi nodded and fixed his sitting on the teacher’s table.

“Could I borrow a calculator?”

Levi snorted and reached for a calculator in a box on his desk.

“So much trouble for one little device”, he muttered. “Here. Bring it back to me as soon as you don’t need it anymore.”

Christa nodded and smiled.

“Thank you!” she said and ran away. Something in her made Levi feel puzzled. Something in her and that sidekick she had along with her all the time.

_ That kid’s got something to hide. _


	11. Left behind

“Christa?”

“Yes, Ymir?”

“What is the reason you are always thinking of suicide?”

Christa startled and stared at Ymir.

“What do you mean? I’m not intending to kill myself”, Christa laughed nervously.

“The why are you always speaking of it? Of things like what would it feel to jump off the roof? To drown? To hang?” Ymir sat up. “You are always wondering what would it feel to die, even if you never tried it. Why?”

Christa shook her head.

“No, Ymir, you’ve understood me wrong”, she smiled. “I wonder how those things would feel, because I will never feel them. I could write a book, a dozen of books, but if anyone was to die in them, how would they feel? I would never know.”

“Hiding behind your innocence, aren’t you?”

Christa bit her lip.

“Christa, you won’t fool me. Speak”, Ymir lay back down, staring up at the sky. “We are in no hurry. And no one will hear us up here on the school’s roof.”

Christa sighed and stared forward, at the edge of the roof. 

“I ran away from home”, Christa answered.

“That is no answer”, Ymir said.

“No, but it’s the reason why I’m still alive”, Christa looked at Ymir. Tears had filled her blue eyes and Ymir got confused. “If I didn’t run away, there would be no Christa. I would be someone else, and most likely dead.”

“Your family doesn’t sound too bright”, Ymir shrugged. A deep, cold silence fell between them, until Ymir broke it. “What was your family like? Were they poor or just crazy?”

“Neither”, Christa whispered. “My family was.. my father was a rich man. Powerful by his name, but weak by his heart. My mother was distant. I spent more time with our workers than my parents, I read more than played. My mother was always reading, and I wanted to be like her.”

Tears fell on Christa’s cheeks.

“Then one day I heard my mother cry that she never wanted me. She never wanted to be a part of my father’s family. She said I’d be best dead. So I ran away. I was scared, I didn’t want to die. But since that day I’ve heard my mother’s voice tell me I should die”, Christa lay her head on her knees. “Her voice rings in my head and tells me to die.”

Ymir got up and walked to Christa. She sat next to the smaller girl and put her hands around Christa’s shoulders.

“You ran away to stay alive, so cut off those thoughts”, Ymir said strictly, with only a hint of empathy in her voice. “If I have learnt anything during my years away from home, it’s that you should only live for yourself. Forget what anyone else says about you. If they want you dead, show them that you are better than them. Fuck them. Stay alive so that one day you can show them your middle finger.”

Ymir stick her middle finger out to the sky and grinned. Through her tears Christa stared at Ymir’s hand.

“Ymir.”

“Yeah, Christa?”

“Why are you here?”

“I ran away, you could say. I ran away to make my own future.”

Ymir stared at Christa and grinned.

“You know, you look better when you smile”, Ymir said and kissed a tear that was rolling down Christa’s cheeks. “Dry those tears and make sure you won’t cry again for something like another person’s opinion. All right? Promise me to live only for yourself.”

Christa smiled lightly and nodded.

“Yes. Sure, Ymir. I will.”


	12. Smiles and surprises

“Eren, cut that picture’s edges straight”, Christa asked. Eren looked at the picture he was cutting.

“Aren’t the edges straight already?” he asked, staring at his work.

“No, don’t you see how crooked they are?” Christa pointed at a side Eren had already cut. Annie looked up from the notes she was writing clean by hand.

“Give me that, I’ll fix it”, Reiner murmured and grabbed the scissors from Eren’s hand.

“Hoi, I was doing that!” Eren shouted.

“If you can’t do it properly, let me help”, Reiner said and cut the edges to be straighter.

“If you can’t stop shouting, you can get your asses out of this classroom”, Levi said with his voice full of disapproval. Some students laughed around and Eren made a “hmph” noise. He was about to say something back at his teacher, but Sasha cut it by bringing some snacks on the table.

“Miss, this is not a class for eating”, Levi snapped and took a handful of her snacks. Sasha made a weird noise and grabbed the rest of her snacks, trying to hide them from Levi.

In a table next to them, Ymir stared at Christa. Mikasa was writing down a long text they had put up together and Jean was looking for some information in a book. Bertholdt and Ymir were supposed to cut some pictures off the paper, but Ymir had quit midway.

“Ymir, are you done already?” Jean asked when noticed Ymir sat there doing nothing.

“Not yet, my hand hurts”, Ymir waved her hand in front of Jean’s face.

“Could you continue?” Jean put his book down.

“Didn’t you hear me? My hand hurts”, Ymir rolled her eyes around. “Are you done with your notes?”

“No, I think I’ll need more material”, Jean muttered and looked at the book in front of him.

“There should be some books in the library”, Mikasa said, looking up from her paper. “I can give you a list.”

~*~

Jean walked around in the library. He already had a good pile of books in his hands, but one he especially was looking for was nowhere to be found.

_ I know there is one of those books in this shelf, _ he thought, trying to have a good hold of the books in his hands while reading the names of the books on higher in the bookshelf.  _ Damn it, why did I take this job to find the hardest source materials? I can’t go on tomorrow’s lesson without it… _

Almost ready to give up, Jean sighed and looked up to another side of the corridor between two high shelves. By luck, on a shelf right above Jean’s head on that side, the book he was looking for stood. With a smile full of relief Jean reached his hand towards the book. It was hard due to the books in his hands. Someone reached a hand past Jean’s and grabbed the book right in front of him.

“Hey, what the hell”, Jean spit and turn his head to see past the books he held. In front of him stood Marco, the right side of his face covered in bandages, the left side almost as pale as the bandages so that his freckles were showing better than ever. Marco smiled the best he could with one side of his face, giving the book forward to Jean.

“You looked like you’d need some help”, Marco said. His voice was rough and his speech stammering. 

“Marco”, Jean dropped the books and hugged Marco tightly. “Marco, you’re alive.”

His voice was so unbelieving Marco couldn’t help but laugh, even though Jean’s hug hurt his still sore body. Not only half of his face but also his hands and some parts of his upper body had taken quite a hit, so all his movement was stiff and careful. While letting go of Marco Jean saw his face and realized it must’ve hurt when he grabbed him in that hug.

“I- I’m sorry, Marco”, Jean murmured, his face redding of shame. Marco laughed quietly. Laughing hurt his muscles, so he tried to avoid it.

“Nothing to be sorry of”, Marco answered, smiling so that Jean could do nothing more than to smile back.


	13. The Return

It was Marco’s first day back to school since the accident at the trip. It had taken a couple of months for him to get so much better that he could go back to school again, and everyone was so happy to see him again. Sasha cried when she saw Marco and ran to him to give him some of her cookies. It was a lot from Sasha, who was known to be very protective over her food and snacks. Everyone spoke with Marco and did their best to make him feel at home.

Though he did return, Marco couldn’t attend everything. Bandages and still healing wounds were a reason enough to give him freedom from sports. Besides Marco spent half of his time at the school’s own hospital wing due to headaches and need of medical attention to his wounds. It was hard for Marco but also for his roommates, especially for Jean who was of course relieved to see Marco back on his feet, but was also worried of his clearly unstable state.

One day as Marco had gotten a headache in the middle of English class, Jean asked for a permission to take him to the nurse. 

“Thanks for coming with me, Jean”, Marco said while they walked together towards the hospital side. “It’s so embarrassing to have to leave the class.”

“I’m just worried about you”, Jean answered, looking at Marco from the corner of his eye. “You are so pale. And you feel ill every day. It’s not normal to go to see the nurse every day like that.”

Marco made a face.

“Yeah, I know”, he sighed. “It’s still the aftermath of that accident. I will be all right, though. Now I seem to be all left.”

Jean stopped and stared at Marco. Marco grinned the best he could with his left side.

“Did.. did you just.. joke about it?” Jean wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry at Marco’s jape. Marco himself seemed to enjoy it, though Jean had hard times finding it a situation to be joking of.

“I did”, Marco nodded. “Don’t worry, Jean. Relax. If you can’t fix it, adapt to it.”

Jean sighed and let himself smile lightly. Marco laughed a bit, but suddenly his face went all serious again. The look in his eye went weird, somewhat dizzy and distant. He staggered and fell forward.

“Marco!” Jean shouted and stepped to catch Marco in his arms. Marco was unconscious, but breathed nearly normally. “Marco, hang on, I’ll take you to the hospital wing!”

Jean grabbed Marco, took him on his back and painfully carried him to the nurse’s office in the hospital wing.


End file.
